Reoccurring Themes and Symbols

Reoccurring Themes and Symbols in Different Works by Nathaniel Hawthorne It is no secret that Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Minister's Black Veil" is a parable. Hawthorne intended it as such and even gave the story the subtitle "a parable." "The Minister's Black Veil," however, was not Hawthorne's only parable. Hawthorne often used symbols and figurative language to give added meaning to the literal interpretations of his work. His Puritan ancestry also influenced much of Hawthorne's work. Instead of agreeing with Puritanism however, Hawthorne would criticize it through the symbols and themes in his stories and parables. Several of these symbols and themes reoccur in Hawthorne's "The Minister's Black Veil," "Young Goodman Brown", and The Scarlet Letter. One particularly noticeable theme in Hawthorne's work is that of secret sin (Newman 338). In the "Young Goodman Brown", this theme is evident when young Mr. Brown dreams that he is led by the devil to a witching party. There he sees all of the honorable and pious members of society, including his minister and the woman who taught him his catechisms, communing with the prince of darkness. Upon awakening, the hypocritical nature of his once admired neighbors and the realization of his own secret sin causes him to become terribly disillusioned (Colacurcio 396). The same thing happens in "The Minister's Black Veil," except the reader does not know exactly what secret sin makes Reverend Hooper begin to don the black veil. Many scholars believe that this has something to do with the funeral of the young lady at the beginning of the story. The opinions range from believing that Reverend Hooper loved the girl in secret, to Poe's believe that Reverend Hooper may have actually been the cause of the girl's death (Newman 204). Whatever the reason, the minister's wearing of the veil taints his view of everyone else around him, making all of them look like they are wearing veils as well (Hawthorne 107)....

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...Themes and Symbols:
It is quite difficult to distinguish some of the themes from the symbols in this story.
ThemesSymbols
Hypocrisy The Box
Religion: Past and Present The Stool
Names of the characters
1. Hypocrisy
The act of pretending to have beliefs, virtues and feelings that one does not truly possess. The word derives from the late Latin hypocrisis and Greek hupokrisis both meaning play-acting or pretence.
A. The Adams and their hypocrisy
“’They do say,’ Mr. Adams said to Old Man Warner, who stood next to him, ‘that over in the north village they’re talking of giving up the lottery.’”
“’Some places have already quite lotteries,’ Mrs. Adams said.”
“Steve Adams was in the front of the crowd of villagers,”
While the Adams’ do come across as progressive, in suggesting overtly that the lottery should be stopped, hypocrisy (found in all of us) rears at the end when he is seen at the front of the crowd
B. Tessie and her Hypocrisy
“Mrs. Hutchinson came hurriedly along the path to the square, her sweater thrown over her shoulders, and slid into place in the back of the crowd. ‘Clean forgot what day it was,’ she said to Mrs. Delacroix, who stood next to her, and they both laughed softly.”
“Mrs. Hutchinson said grinning, ‘Wouldn’t have me leave m’dishes in the sink, now, would you,...

...There is a reoccurringtheme in the novel 1984, by George Orwell. The main character, Winston Smith is often fantasizing about his utopia, and dreaming about past events. In a world where everyone is controlled and everything is decided for you, Winston relies on his subconscious mind to maintain his sanity.<br><br>Winston works rewriting the past in a department for the Party. His memories of the past are usually the opposite of the Party's version of the past. Winston is very confused about whether or not he is losing his mind. His dreams reveal the reality of the Party and the truth of the past, enabling him to trust his own instinct of what is right and wrong, keeping it clear in his mind what the past was really like. In one dream Winston envisioned his mother and his baby sister sinking into a well or lowering off the side of a ship - he wasn't quite sure. He felt as if they were being sucked towards death. He knew they were sacrificing their lives for his own. Winston realizes "...that his mothers death, nearly 30 years ago, had been tragic and sorrowful in a way that was no longer possible" (Orwell 28). He believed that the feelings of tragedy, privacy, love, and friendship were things of past times. The memory of his mother's death saddened him because he knew that she had died loving him, all the while he was too young and selfish to love her back. The loyalty his mother had for him does not exist in 1984. There is only fear and hatred...

...Themes, Motifs & SymbolsThemesThemes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work.
The Importance of Establishing Identity
As Beowulf is essentially a record of heroic deeds, the concept of identity—of which the two principal components are ancestral heritage and individual reputation—is clearly central to the poem. The opening passages introduce the reader to a world in which every male figure is known as his father’s son. Characters in the poem are unable to talk about their identity or even introduce themselves without referring to family lineage. This concern with family history is so prominent because of the poem’s emphasis on kinship bonds. Characters take pride in ancestors who have acted valiantly, and they attempt to live up to the same standards as those ancestors.
While heritage may provide models for behavior and help to establish identity—as with the line of Danish kings discussed early on—a good reputation is the key to solidifying and augmenting one’s identity. For example, Shield Sheafson, the legendary originator of the Danish royal line, was orphaned; because he was in a sense fatherless, valiant deeds were the only means by which he could construct an identity for himself. While Beowulf’s pagan warrior culture seems not to have a concept of the afterlife, it sees fame as a way of ensuring that an individual’s memory will continue on after death—an...

...Themes, Motifs, and SymbolsThemesThemes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work.
The Search for Spiritual Enlightenment
In Siddhartha, an unrelenting search for truth is essential for achieving a harmonious relationship with the world. The truth for which Siddhartha and Govinda search is a universal understanding of life, or Nirvana. Siddhartha and Govinda both have a fundamental desire to understand their lives through spirituality, seek to do this by reaching Nirvana, and start with the conviction that finding Nirvana is possible. Although Nirvana leads to a perfect relationship with the world and is thus an end goal that each man aspires to reach, Siddhartha and Govinda differ in what they're willing to do in search for this truth. In Siddhartha's case, when he becomes suspicious that one path may lead to a dead end, he quickly alters his course. He is willing to abandon the path of the Brahmins for the path of the Samanas, to leave the Samanas for Gotama, and then to make a radical departure from spiritual teachers and search in the material world with Kamala and Kamaswami. He does not relent in his search and instead continues to follow whatever path becomes available if he has clearly not yet reached Nirvana.
Govinda is much less flexible in his quest for spiritual enlightenment. In his quest, he restricts himself to the spiritual and religious world and persists in...

...Kuntzy
10A
English Class
Motif
ThemeSymbol
What is it?
Repetition of person, object or image.
The context or message of the story.
Object, person or image that
What is its function?
Helps us to understand the theme.
Gives purpose to the story
Represents an idea.
Iciar Aldonza
Cristina Prats
Fernanda Kuntzy
Our song:
A goodbye to remember
Turn around
Say it loud.
Face the rhythm of the night to say goodbye.
Take your time
to think about
all the things we shared while watching the stars.
You may leave, but I believe
that our love will remain strong
till eternity.
I write this song to you,
so when pain comes to you
you’ll have a piece of me in your hands to embrace.
I hope you stay strong,
the stars will light up
the perfect way for you to follow while gone.
Cause I’ll be waiting for a star to tell me there’s light
Waiting for it to tell me you’re safe and the mission is done.
This is a sad song, it reflects sadness and heartache. The theme is a guy who is leaving her (the narrator). But he’s leaving her not because he wants to, but because he has a military mission. He has enlisted to be a military soldier as volunteer service. He doesn’t want to go but he needs to. He is in such a pain for leaving her that he doesn’t even have the courage to say goodbye “Face the rhythm of the night to say goodbye”. Also, she says that she writes this song to him so when he’s in pain he’ll have a piece of...

...on the other hand, is symbolic of all that is alluring about women and life that might be possible for Sammy on the outside, a life that seems palatable yet unattainable to Sammy.
Stokesie, Sammy's older co-worker, is symbolic of the life Sammy may well be headed for: married, tied down with children, and few options for another life.
Lengel, the manger, is symbolic of those too-far-gone, the adults who, like the witches, could not care less about youthful ambition.
Finally, and perhaps most symbolically, is the supermarket itself. It is symbolic of the consumer culture that has a definite heirarchy: the "witches" by bland "HiHo" crackers while Queenie purchases "Fancy Herring Snacks."
Choices and Consequences
An important theme in "A & P" is that of choices and consequences. All of the main characters in the story must make a choice and endure the consequences of that choice. The consequences of these choices are not always apparent to the characters. Sammy, the cashier, makes the most obvious and most painful choice, and on some level he is aware of the consequences. When he chooses to quit his job, he knows that this decision will have ramifications in his life that will last for a long time. His family is affected, and it causes him to recount the situation as "sad." Because he has stood up for something on principle—he was protesting the manager's chastisement of the girls—he knows life will be difficult for him. If Sammy quits his job...

...Themes/Symbols of The Lottery” and “The Things They Carried”
In the short story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson there are many themes. However, the main theme of the short story is following a tradition blindly can be deadly. Tradition in societies and culture allows for important lessons and skills to be passed on from generation to generation. However, following others without questioning what is going on or the reason why your doing it in the first place, can lead to reckless and impulsive behavior. Although the tradition in the small village remained the same the rituals gradually changed .
For example the lottery determines each year whether you live or die. This indicates how dangerous tradition can be when people blindly follow it. Another example is the children running around gathering stones for this event and to top it off they are forced to participate in this event as well. After being subjected to this for so long, the children become used to it and participates willingly. Everyone becomes custom to this life without asking questions ,this becomes a ritual of murder and a major part of their lives.
After awhile the wood chips changed to paper, because it allowed more pieces of paper/families names to go into the box. That symbolized the growth of the village. The black box symbolizes not only tradition, but the loyalty the villagers has for its tradition. The black box also symbolizes death,...

...The corresponding themes and symbols of an appropriation encourage readers to re-examine the original text. This is evident in the novel Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf, and the appropriation The Hours by Michael Cunningham. When someone reads The Hours they recognise the universality of the themes explored in the novel, which persuades them to return to the original work in order to discover how the same themes have been examined in a different context. Likewise, a desire to better understand the use of symbols in the appropriation provokes readers to trace them back to their origins in Mrs Dalloway. Moreover, the simple structure of The Hours makes Michael Cunningham’s novel accessible to a wide audience. This equips more readers with the insight required to approach the challenging style of Virginia’s novel.
Two universal themes explored in the 1990’s novel The Hours are death and love. Death in the novel is overwhelmingly portrayed as an escape from the struggles and trials of life. This is evident in the prologue where Virginia Woolf, an early 20th century English writer, commits suicide. The alliteration “she appears to be flying, a fantastic figure, arms outstretched” demonstrates how death has liberated Mrs Woolf from the destructive cycle of her “terrible disease”. This attitude can also be seen in the contemplative tone of “it might feel so free: to simply go away” which...